62 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



the time, half a million years ago, when the human stock was already 

 distinct from that of the higher apes. 



Thence he examines the possibilities of the future, and his conclusions 

 are of great interest. He thinks it unlikely that any animal higher than 

 man will be evolved, unless it be from mankind itself; but then he has 

 little faith that even man is capable of much advance in physique or 

 intellectual capacity, though he trusts that in social evolution much 

 progress may yet be made. 



In the second and third sections of his book Professor Conklin 

 discusses reasonably and sympathetically the biological sanction of 

 democracy as the social organisation of the future, and shows how the 

 "religion of evolution" is no more than a development of the old religion 

 which seeks to ameliorate the conditions and advance the ideals of the 

 human race. 



FROM THE MAGAZINES. 



It is seldom that the simplest of animals, the Protozoa, receive much 

 attention at the hands of the amateur naturalist, owing to their smallness 

 and to the difficulties of observation and determination ; but two papers 

 in the Trans. Perthshire Soc. Nat. Sc. for 1920-21 give evidence of 

 prolonged and careful study of different classes of this phylum. 

 "Rhizopods of Perthshire" by F. M 'Lagan, and "The Ciliata" by J. 

 Craigie, both contain long lists of species with the localities from which 

 they have been obtained, and contribute very materially to our know- 

 ledge of the free-living Protozoa of Scotland. 



The same number contains a record of a Wild Cat caught in a trap 

 at Glenlyon in November 1919. 



To The Glasgow Naturalist., Dec. 192 1, Mr W. Rennie contributes 

 "Bird Notes from Possil Marsh," and Mr John Ritchie an account of 

 an epidemic among Roach in the Forth and Clyde Canal, which he 

 attributes to the parasite Arguliis foliaceiis. 



The " History of the Great Crested Grebe in Dumbartonshire," by 

 Mr Alexander Cuthbertson, traces the spread of the species in recent 

 years in that area {^British Birds., April 1922). 



The History of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club for 1921 contains 

 a short note on the occurrence of Eagles in Northumberland, an 

 account of the changes in the fauna of Morpeth, and Earl Grey's 

 Presidential Address on Waterfowl. 



